Chineseness and the Cold War: Contested Cultures and Diaspora in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong (Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Asia)

This book explores contested notions of "Chineseness" in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong during the Cold War, showing how competing ideas about "Chineseness" were an important ideological factor at play in the region. After providing an overview of the scholarship on "Chineseness" and "diaspora", the book sheds light on specific case studies, through the lens of the "Chinese cultural Cold War", from Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaya, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam. It provides detailed examples of competition for control of definitions of "Chineseness" by political or politically oriented forces of diverse kinds, and shows how such competition was played out in bookstores, cinemas, music halls, classrooms, and even sports clubs and places of worship across the region in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. The book also demonstrates how the legacies of these Cold War contestations continue to influence debates about Chinese influence – and "Chineseness" – in Southeast Asia and the wider region today. Cover Half Title Series Title Copyright Contents List of figures List of tables List of contributors Acknowledgements Archival abbreviations Introduction: putting “Chineseness” back into Cold War cultures Part I Chineseness and “new China” in Cold War Southeast Asia 1 The Southern Film Corporation, opera films and the PRC’s cultural diplomacy in Cold War Asia, 1950s–1960s 2 The Malayan Emergency and the desinicization of the Malayan Chinese 3 Chineseness and the Cold War in Thailand: from “red scare” to strategic ally Part II Anti-communist Chineseness in Cold War Asia 4 State-building and Chinese transnationalism during the Cold War: Chinese sport in the Republic of Vietnam, 1955–1975 5 Soft-boiled, anti-communist romance: The Story Paper and Liu Yichang’s A Singapore Story 6 Voice of America Chinese-dialect broadcasting and the Chinese cultural Cold War, 1949–1953 Part III Border-crossing “Chineseness” in Asia 7 North across the Southern Seas: Cold War Chinese careers of Indonesian songs 8 Visiting the “overseas Chinese”: Vatican engagement with the Chinese diaspora in Cold War Southeast Asia 9 Alternative Chineseness: war experience and national longing in Pan Lei’s Red River Trilogy (1952) and Deng Kebao’s Alien Lands (1961) Abridged bibliography Index This book explores contested notions of'Chineseness'in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong during the Cold War, showing how competing ideas about'Chineseness'were an important ideological factor at play in the region. After providing an overview of the scholarship on'Chineseness'and'diaspora', the book sheds light on specific case studies, through the lens of the'Chinese cultural Cold War', from Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaya, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam. It provides detailed examples of competition for control of definitions of'Chineseness'by political or politically oriented forces of diverse kinds, and shows how such competition was played out in bookstores, cinemas, music halls, classrooms, and even sports clubs and places of worship across the region in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. The book also demonstrates how the legacies of these Cold War contestations continue to influence debates about Chinese influence – and'Chineseness'– in Southeast Asia and the wider region today.Chapter 6 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license. "This book explores contested notions of "Chineseness" in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong during the Cold War, showing how competing ideas about "Chineseness" were an important ideological factor at play in the region. After providing an overview of the scholarship on "Chineseness" and "Diaspora", the book sheds light on specific case studies, through the lens of the "Chinese cultural Cold War", from Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaya, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam. It provides detailed examples of competition for control of definitions of "Chineseness" by political or politically-oriented forces of diverse kinds, and shows how such competition was played out in bookstores, cinemas, music halls, classrooms, and even sports clubs and places of worship right across the region in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. The book also demonstrates how the legacies of these Cold War contestations continue to influence debates about Chinese influence -- and "Chineseness" -- in Southeast Asia and the wider region today"-- Provided by publisher